Protesting farmers and Central Ministers have reached an agreement on the decriminalisation of stubble burning and safeguarding power subsidies, two out of four issues on the negotiating table during their final round of talks for the year.
However, deadlock continues on the two biggest demands — repeal of three farm market reform laws and a legal guarantee for minimum support prices (MSPs) for farm produce. Further discussion on these issues will be held at the next meeting on January 4.
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‘Positive note’
“We have resolved 50% of the issues. The meeting was conducted in a cordial atmosphere and concluded on a positive note,” Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar told journalists after the meeting. He and other Ministers Piyush Goyal and Som Parkash joined in the farmers’ langar lunch for the first time in the negotiations, in a show of goodwill.
“The farm unions were apprehensive about farmers facing fines and jail for stubble burning cases under the ordinance on air quality in the capital. We have agreed to exclude farmers from these penalties. Farmers also felt that amendments to the Electricity Act will harm them, and wanted to ensure the continuance of state power subsidies for irrigation purposes. We have reached an agreement on this also,” he added.
With temperatures around the capital dipping closer to zero, he urged farmer leaders to send home the women, children and the elderly among the protesters. Tens of thousands of protesting farmers have been camped on the outskirts of Delhi for 35 straight days.
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Farmer leaders also welcomed the resolution of these two issues, but said the protest would not end while the elephant in the room was yet to be dealt with.
“There was some progress today, but it was along predictable lines,” said Kavitha Kuruganti of the Mahila Kisan Adhikaar Manch, noting that solutions for these two issues had already been envisaged in the Centre’s December 9 proposal. On the more thorny issue of the three contentious farm reform laws, she said the government asked farmers to suggest other options short of repealing the laws. “They wanted us to propose alternatives, but we kept saying there are no alternatives to repeal. This is our key demand and the agitation will continue until the laws are repealed,” she added.
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With regard to an MSP law, the Centre proposed a small expert committee to examine various implications. “There was a long and detailed discussion on MSP, but no consensus was reached. The Agriculture Minister said a legal guarantee that all farm produce would be bought at a set rate was not financially feasible. He suggested a committee to discuss it further, but we told them to first repeal the three farm laws and then a committee can be set up to look at all these issues together,” said Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh leader Abhimanyu Kohar.
RKMS leaders will return to their base in Bhopal on Thursday, but only to hold rallies and mobilise more protesters, said Mr. Kohar. “There is no question of ending the agitation until our demands are met,” he added.
